Battle for Earth
by BlackKnight92
Summary: The Burning Legion is preparing for an invasion of a new world. Its people are divided, they have no magical abilities. A world that the Legion should easily conquer. Or are they awakening a sleeping giant. Rated T for now. I don't own anything you will recognize from Warcraft universe, that belongs to Blizzard.
1. Prologue

**Hello.**

**This is an idea that I had while aimlessly wondering what is the purpose of life. Finding none I decided to write this short prologue.**

**Tell me what you think about it.**

* * *

"Tell me why shouldn't I destroy you for disturbing me in such a time", said the man wearing a black and purple robe, his face covered by a shadow created by his deep hood. On his shoulders set two large metal pauldrons, on their ends, waiving on the wind that wasn't there, were black crow feathers. In the middle they were connected by a metal plate on which stood a large blood red gem, which stood directly over the man's heart.

"I am sorry for disturbing your work master", said Bealdar. Even when he was in front of his lord by magical means, Bealdar the Seeker was afraid of his master, as all Eredar were, for before him stood no mere mortal, but the Lord of the Burning Legion, Destroyer of worlds, the fallen Titan, Sargeras.

"But I assure you, that I wouldn't have done so if there was no good reason for doing so", the Seeker knew that no matter how many words he said to save himself from dark Titan's wrath, he would cease to exist if Sargeras so wished. But if they just prolonged the inevitable, the fallen Ereder would speak even if it only bought him a few minutes.

"A world of great interest has been found, yet it's existence has been hidden from you", Bealdar finished, deciding that moving to the point was a safer bet for his continued existence.

"Continue", ordered his master, his voice filled with great power and unfathomable rage even when he spoke through the body of a human, which served as a vessel for his spirit.

"The records were hidden in the library on Argus, I have stumbled upon them by mare chance. What cough my interest was that the world was found by one of our ships that traverse the cosmos, which stumbled upon it because it had to reenter reality because of a failure of its drive, not by searching the nether for magical disturbances as we have done so far. Because of this reason it was Archimonde that got the news first and hid his findings." His Lord was clearly displeased by this revelations, but Bealdar still allowed himself to finish his speech angrily, for it was his job as a Seeker to find new worlds to conquer and Archimonde completely bypassed him. Now it was time for revenge, and if he was lucky he would finally advance in the legion's ranks.

"Show me", Sargeras ordered.

From his cloak Bealdar pulled out an orb, on its surface were engraved runes of the demonic origin. When the dark titan touched the orb it changed from its ethereal form to a solid one, the runes lit up and images were shown, their light illuminating the vast study they were occupying.

Images showed a world, third from its sun, around it only one moon circled. It had six great land masses. Then images shifted and showed the people that inhabited the planet, there were only humans, no other races. And magic, there was none. This is what got Bealdar's attention in the first place, no wonder he couldn't find this world when there was no magic on it. The fact that it was the humans that inhabited the planet confused him even more.

During eons of the Burning Legions crusade against the order, which Titans tried to spread, they came across many worlds that were visited by his masters brethren. Usually on those planets there was multitude of races that inhabited them. But Humans, Dwarfs and Giants were almost a constant for these worlds, wherever the Titans went, these races were seeded. The fact that this world was inhabited only by one race wasn't so strange, sometimes one race wiped out all the other races, but there were always ruins to be found if such a thing occurred, here there were none. One more thing about Titan visited worlds was that they were always filled with massive amounts of magic, and this one had none, suggesting that Titans never came here, yet Humans, a race that was clearly being seeded by Titans throughout the galaxy, was present.

And that is what got Bealdar's interest in the first place, some kind of truth, some kind of knowledge was hidden on this world, and he wanted it, for knowledge was power, and power was everything in the ranks of the Burning Legion.

Looking up the Seeker saw the images showing men wearing plate armor and riding horses, marching to war. Armies numbering tens of thousands crashed on the world's surface, what he saw was a world divided, an easy prey, made even easier for there will be no mages to support the knights that would soon crash with innumerable legions of demons.

When the images stopped the destroyer of worlds decided to speak, "When was this recorded?"

"Six hundred years ago, master", that was not a lot of time, surely not much has changed on that world.

"Do you have any other observations of this world?"

"The planets land masses are one of the largest we have encountered so far, and its population is by far the largest, also the countries on the far western and eastern sides of the largest continent are most developed countries of this world. But because there is no magic on this world we can't make someone open a portal for us invade through, thus we will need to use our fleet to get there, and only then we will be able to open portals, my lord", Bealdar finished a bit more energetically then he intended, while recalling his knowledge about the Legion's fleet.

The fleet, and its ships were manly used to transport artifacts, which were to large or unstable to be sent by portals, from one world controlled by the Legion to another. And if Sargeras approved of his plan, for he needed his approval to rip the fleet from Archimonde's control, it would be used for the first time to transport troops.

"I see", Sargeras, wearing the flesh of a man, said but he was not finished, "and I assume that you would like to lead my fleet for this invasion", a small smirk spread on Bealdar's lips, he was ready to reply when his master decided to continue.

"Do so, this people seems an easy adversary to beat. But know that you are being sent because Kil'jaedan and Archimonde are needed to prepare a new invasion on Azeroth, while this man," he gestured to the body he was possessing, "whose body for the moment I control, has to open a portal for the Horde to start its invasion", he made a small pause before he finished, "And I guess you know the price of failure."

Bealdar simply nodded.

"Be gone", his master told him and he complied, canceling his magical connection and his ethereal form disappeared. It would take him a few years to gather the whole fleet and a bit more to convince few of the power figures to join him on this expedition, but what are few years compared to eternity of power, that he would gain by conquering this planet.

'Yes, this is going to be easy' he thought. Oh how wrong he was.

* * *

**This is a prologue to a story of the same name that i am planning to write. **

**If somebody likes the idea you are free to steal it.**

**Reviews are welcome.**


	2. First contact

Before you start reading I would like to tell you that English isn't my first language so if you find some repeated mistakes please tell me. Constrictive reviews will be much appreciated, I thank you in advance.

* * *

They stood in darkness, in perfect formation of five by five, behind them one more group of exactly the same formed men, they stood in front of him, they stood in perfect silence.

'Men? Not men, these are boys that stand here', he told himself, 'A boy given command over boys', he thought darkly.

They stood and he watched them, looking for anything that they might lack, so far so good. Behind him was a transport aircraft, An-26, its ramp lowered, engines silent, electronics off, it too stood and waited for zero hour.

Sparing a glance to the left he saw his captain, in front of him fifty men as well, carrying the same gear as those in front of himself. They had parachutes on their backs, rifles over their shoulders, ammunition strapped to their waists, on them there were grenades hanging together with a single tin can, in it a gas mask.

None knew what they were up against, no one knew what to expect, all they were told was that the enemy was coming and that there were many. Duty called and they answered.

Again he looked at his captain, captain Marko Stefanovic, a thirty seven year old man, only veteran in this group of solders, he fought during the wars in the nineties, when he and the rest of the troop were only children. Stefanovic lifted his sight from his watch and looked directly at him.

"Five more minutes, Jovanovic, have patience", captain said to him.

"Yes sir", he replied.

It was the captain that had the command over these one hundred boys, while Jovanovic as a lieutenant was second in command, but for now he led only ten men. His duties would increase only if Marko deemed so necessary or he died, Jovanovic hoped he didn't, without him they would be lost, he would be lost.

"Don't look into the sky private", lieutenant ordered sharply, said private immediately lowered his gaze from the stars above to the hard asphalt that made this runway.

"We don't want any of you losing your sight before we make contact with the enemy", Jovanovic continued, feeling as he was a father scolding his children. And children they were, the oldest was barely twenty two and the youngest was nineteen. All of them were pulled out of the military academy and brought here to fight for the fatherland, or fight for all of mankind as some politicians called it.

Jovanovic himself was twenty six and it was two years ago that he finished the military academy and joined the army. He remembers his grand dreams of becoming a general while he was there, hell he even dreamed of conquering the world, of becoming next Napoleon, or Cesar, or maybe Alexander the Great, someone whose name would be remembered for thousands of years. But his dreams were shattered when he entered the army, rising in rank was slow and hard process, his superiors told him that he had the talent and ability to become a colonel by thirty, and if he was lucky a general by forty.

All of that was useless now, all of the hard work he put into studying, into training, to become faster, stronger and smarter, for he lacked something the lot before him lacked as well and only captain had, experience.

'Well, we are going to get a lot of that soon enough', Jovanovic thought.

He looked at his watch, it was mechanical, given to him and all other officers just for this occasion, and it showed 4:03 AM, two more minutes.

Lifting his gaze he looked to the south east, in the direction of the city of Kraljevo, he couldn't see it, all the light they had was coming from the moon covered by clouds and the city's lights were off, along with all the lights in the rest of the valley, together with all the lights on the planet. The whole world was dark and silent, and anticipated the inevitable.

Again he took a look at fifty before him, he eyed their faces and eyes looking for any kind of emotions on them, emotions that spoke volumes that couldn't be spoken through words. There was anxiety, worry, even excitement, but most dominant was fear.

'Good' Jovanovic thought as he remembered one of his father's lectures.

"_Fear son, fear is the most important feeling a solder can have. It is the fear that helps him survive the battle, it is fear that helps him perform his duty. The fear of death, the fear for one's family is what should be the driving force of the solder, because only through that kind of fear will the solder be ready to lay down his life for the family he left to protect. Without it men are no longer solders but beasts, demons of hate that devour everything before them, such men have to be put down as beasts that they have become, for they will destroy until there is nothing left to destroy. Do you understand me son?"_

"_Yes sir", he replied, his voice that of a child, he was only seven._

"_That is my good little solder." _

Lieutenant Jovanovic woke from his short daydream and looked at his watch, it was 4:05.

'Soon' he said to himself and looked to his right, there stood eighteen groups of fifty solders and in front of them were eighteen An-26 transport aircraft. They stood and waited in perfect order and silence, veil of darkness their best friend, they stood and they waited.

Last seconds felt like life times, Jovanovic was holding his breath, suppressing his urge to look up. Whole eternities passed before humanities first response to the alien invasion made itself known.

All of a sudden the whole sky became blindingly bright, as the first light started to recede second appeared, then the third and the forth. It continued like this for several minutes from horizon to horizon, and just like it suddenly appeared, the light that illuminated the whole valley, disappeared.

Moments later sky was filled with hundreds, no thousands of meteors that burned out in the atmosphere, but some were still able to reach the ground.

"EMP passed by now, start the engines and get inside" shouted the colonel on the other side of the runway. Jovanovic repeated the command and turned on his radio, hearing a slight static from his earpiece. He entered the transporter last and set on the seat closest to the doors, just as they were closing and engines starting.

As soon as they were airborne he heard Marko's voice over the radio, "Get ready men, enemy landings have been confirmed, we are executing plan number seventeen, we are going to Kosovo."

* * *

...

* * *

Two days earlier.

He woke up completely pleased with himself. He had a pleasant dream, it was about an angel, he was coming home and the angel waited for him, welcomed him with a kiss, gave him a diner befitting of kings and finally made love to him. An angel that loved him and he loved back.

Jovanovic looked to his left, and there she was, still asleep, a smile on her lips, those beautiful plump red lips. With his right hand he removed few strands of her light brown hair from her face, revealing a small nose, there were no imperfections on her face, she was perfect, she was his, and he was hers.

Slowly he removed his arm from underneath her, careful not to wake her. She mumbled something incomprehensive in her sleep, but he knew what. Lining over her he kissed her on the forehead.

"I will be back soon"

He put on some pants and went to the living room which served as a kitchen and dining room as well. Their apartment, no his it was still only his but soon it will be theirs, he hoped, was painfully small but they were happy, and that was more then he could ask for.

From the fridge he took two eggs and started frying them, on top them he added some cheese and leek, he smeared some butter on two toasts and filled a glass with orange juice. He put everything on a trey and walked into the bedroom.

"You are such a bad boy Dusan, for making a girl wait", the angel playfully scolded him, her ocean blue eyes shining with joy.

"I am terribly sorry Tamara, the eggs were putting quite a resistance on the frying pan", Dusan answered trying to look guilty, but failing miserably as both of them burst into laughter.

He put the tray down, and she pulled him in for a kiss. Their tongues danced around one another for a few minutes until they separated to take a breath.

"It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back."

"How long do you have now?"

"A week."

"That's not much."

"I know, but after two more months I can get a desk job in the ministry, then we can be together every day."

"I hope that happens."

"Me too."

As they finished their short conversation, Tamara started munching her breakfast while Dusan picked disregarded clothes around the room. 'What a kill joy', Jovanovic thought, as a young officer he was frequently changing bases where he was stationed, thus it was rare for him to be home. This time he was stationed with 3th army brigade at Nis for two months. He returned home for his one week leave, planning to make most of it, where he will be stationed next was still unknown.

"What time is it?" Tamara asked.

"14:30" Dusan answered looking at his wrist watch, 'Damn we overslept', a smile found its way to his lips, he knew perfectly well why they orerslept.

"O my god, o my god", Tamara all but screamed, "I am going to be late", she continued, panic evident in her movement as she tried to get dressed with haste.

"What hell has gotten into you, where are you going to be late?"

"The test, I have a test in 3, oh god I am so screwed."

"Get dressed I am driving"

* * *

It was a beautiful summer day in Belgrade, there was not one cloud on the sky, sun was shining as brightly as ever, and the wind was slowly blowing taking the heat away. But Dusan barely noticed any of this as he drove like a maniac, Tamara beside him reading her notes for the last time before the big test.

Jovanovic cursed for not having a better car, for the small Yugo barely kept up with the amount of force he pressed the gas pedal with. After twenty minutes of zigzagging through city traffic he finally pressed the brakes stopping the car in its tracks, in front of Faculty of Philology.

"There and you have whole five minutes to spare", he said, glad that they actually arrived alive and safe.

"Thanks", Tamara said, gave him a quick kiss and bolted out.

Tamara's exam would last for three hours, so he had a lot of time to prepare for today's self imposed mission. Dusan bought everything he needed from a local supermarket and went home. Once there he started making diner, he never knew how to make food look nice on a plate but he at least knew how to make it. Tamara would appreciate the gesture, he hoped.

It was half past six when he was finished, on the table sat a large rousted chicken, around it young potatoes smeared in the souse that was dripping from flightless bird, beside it a bowl of salad and a bottle of wine. Jovanovic didn't have wine glasses so he had to borrow them from a neighbor. All of that was lit by two red candles, all that was left to do was to wait for her to return.

Minutes that passed felt like hours, every moment making him more nervous. Thoughts like where is she, did something happen, is she ok, found their way towards his brain. He knew that thinking like that was no good, but as much as he tried he couldn't suppress them.

He bolted upright when bell rang, he marched to the door like he was on parade, his palms sweaty, mouth dry as a desert. He opened the door.

"Something smells nice", Tamara said right away as she entered, "Did you make diner?"

Dusan had a speech, a perfect speech to make this occasion perfect, he planned every step of the way to make this moment special. All of that went out the window, because of his nervousness he couldn't say anything and thus Tamara spoke first, throwing his thought process in complete chaos.

'No plan survives contact with the enemy, improvise!'

"Y-yea", he answered weakly.

'That is the best you could do, damn you are a moron', Dusan scolded himself, silently wishing he could throw himself into the deepest pit he could find.

While he was thinking about his own stupidity, Tamara made her way to the living room, "Oh my god, this is so beautiful".

Jovanovic made his way to the room and found her in the middle of the room lit only by candlelight. Tamara turned around and gave him a small kiss on the lips, thanking him for everything. Dusan pulled the chair to help her sit, then he sliced a piece of the chicken for her and put some of the potatoes in her plate. Only then he allowed himself to sit down and put something into his own plate, he found a music channel on TV, music was slow but had a happy rhythm.

They ate in silence for couple of minutes until Dusan broke it, "How did you do on the test?"

"Excellent, tomorrow I am to have an oral test", she answered happily.

"I am happy for you", he said a smile on his face, "excuse me", he added and went to the hallway opening the top shelf of a small locker. In it was a small purple box, beside it a picture of his parents and himself, his mother and father stood proudly, he was between them a school bag on his back. It was the only picture he had left of his parents. He took the box.

"Wish me luck", he whispered to the picture.

Returning to the living room, he saw Tamara watching a spot on TV, Dusan caught her attention as he kneeled beside her.

"Tamara Pavlovic will you marry me?" he meant every word he said, in that single sentence he purred every emotion he had.

Tamara stared at him, mouth agape, she swallowed, so did he, anticipating her answer, 'Did I do it too suddenly', he thought fearing the worst.

"Yes"

"Yes?"

"Yes ", she repeated, happy tears rolling down her cheeks as she took his head in her arms and kissed him. They stood up as they kissed and took her in his arms, bringing her body closer to his. Their moment of pure joy was interrupted by sudden stop of music.

"Shit", Dusan said as he saw Serbian coat of arms that replaced a music spot that played until now, instead of music there was an almost mechanical voice that would repeat same message over and over again.

"All military personnel and reservists are to report to the closest military base in twelve hour period."

'Who are we at war now?' Dusan screamed inside himself. He knew that there would be a war in his lifetime, he lived on Balkans after all.

'Couldn't they wait a couple of days at least.'

He took the remote and changed the channel to the national television, knowing that there would be given some information of what was going on.

"… the ships were spotted this morning by an Japanese observatory around the Moon at 08:30 and are progressing towards Earth. Leaders of US, Russia, China, France, UK, India and Germany have already gathered and are discussing the course the humanity as a whole should take. Any attempts to contact the ships have failed. This is a footage taken from the Interactional Space Station." With that the image of the news woman was replaced by a video of black ships of various shapes and sizes, there were thousands of them, tens of thousands, and every one of them looked more menacingly then the previous.

He looked towards Tamara, she had her hands over her mouth, eyes stunned in shock, a new golden ring around her finger.

'This is a joke, right?'

Phone rang and he picked it up.

"Lieutenant Jovanovic?"

'No way, no way, this is impossible.'

"…Yes?"

"You are to report to the HQ immediately."

* * *

...

* * *

"This is the situation", captain Stefanovic said as he unfolded a map.

"We are here in Babin Most", he pointed to the location and continued, "most of the rest of the company are here at Priluzje. As for the Enemy we know that they landed south of Pristina, Americans rode out of Bondsteel around six this morning so they have most likely engaged the Enemy by now. But they don't have any heavy hardware so we have to take this bridge at Milosevo so when tanks arrive they can cross the river. Battalion's main objective is to take Obilic to open the road to Pristina from the west, that way our company is alone in taking the bridge. Our problem is that the villagers have heard gunfire from Milosevo so we can expect resistance, so here is the plan. Jovanovic you will take your and two more squads and swim over the river at Raskovo and then approach Milosevo from the north while I and the rest will engage directly over the bridge so you can strike them from the back. I am understood!"

"Yes sir", they all replied in union and set off to do their tasks.

"Milos, Lazar you and your squads are with me" Dusan told them and proceeded to the edge of the village.

"Listen we have to cross an open field till we reach the river, luckily the wheat is high and still growing so it will provide some cover, stay low and stay sharp. Move out", he told them as they left the safety of the village and started crossing the fields.

It took them twenty minutes of crawling through the dirt to reach the river bank. Strangely they encountered no sentries or patrols on the other side so he ordered them to cross the river. The river was nothing more than a three meters deep channel with a stream that reached to his waist. This wasn't enough to stop a tank but it would slow it down considerably, thus they needed the bridge.

As they entered the village of Raskovo Dusan could hear arguing. Telling his men to remain hidden he reviled himself before a group of elderly people, some holding hunting rifles.

"Don't fire we are coming out", he yelled in Albanian.

Villagers jerked on his voice, and tensed up when they saw him coming out on plain sight.

"What is going on?", he asked them.

One of the men holding the rifles stepped in front of him, his demeanor hostile, "We don't need Serbian children here, go back to your country", he said and spat in Jovanovic's general direction. Dusan barely contained himself as he felt his blood pressure rising, they received the same treatment in Babin Most and lost lots of time defusing the situation, and to return to his country?, if Dusan was asked he was still walking on Serbian soil. As much as he wanted to cut down the old man together with the lot behind him, Jovanovic needed any sort of information they might have, and really didn't need someone pointing a rifle to his back. So he decided to act as diplomatically as possible.

"These Serbian children came here to bleed for you", he spat at them, "so tell me what I need to know."

Dusan motioned for his men to come out, and they did, guns pointed at the villagers. 'We could always write this off as collateral', he mused.

"Calm down solder", came a shaky voice of an old small woman, she was bent over a walking stick. "I will tell you what happened", he nodded signaling her to continue.

"We were arguing if we should let these morons", she gestured to the elderly men with guns, "should go to see what happened in Balshaj (Milosevo in Albanian). An hour ago our younger men went there and didn't return. We heard gun shots, and their wives got worried."

"I see, we will see what happened to them. Thank you."

"See what happened to them? You and I both know they are already dead, what we want is their bodies back."

"I will see to that", Dusan replied, glad that someone had brain in this village.

"On me", he said and Milos and Lazar kneeled together with him as Dusan unfolded the map.

"We now know that hostiles are in Milosevo, so we will use river bank and trees around it as cover till we reach these houses, then we will use them to enter the village unseen. Understood?" They nodded. "Let's go."

"T7 (tango seven) report", came Marko's voice over the earplug.

"We are entering the village, in position in five", Dusan replied.

"Report when in position T7."

"Will do, T7 out"

They were quiet as mice as they moved through households, it wasn't rare for them to find bodies that were decapitated or missing one or several limbs, some were so brutalized that all that remained was a bloody paste. Apparently there were no survivors.

Some of his men vomited, but he kept his stomach in check. But this kind of brutality made him think what kind of creatures they are going to face. What do they look like? Do they even have legs or arms? But most of all what kind of technology do they have, and thus what kind of weaponry?

"S3 (Siera three) clear the building to the left report when clear, S5 with me", Jovanovic ordered, and they complied despite being young and scared, their teachers assured their obedience during the first year in the academy.

One of Lazar's men opened back door and they rushed in. Dusan made his way to the windows facing the main street, his earplug buzzing with clear signs. As he took a peak of the street he saw it filled with creatures of various shapes and sizes. The smallest were some red gremlin like creatures barely half a meter tall, that gathered around larger versions of themselves, while the largest was a woman, he thought it was a woman, that was almost eight meters tall, had six arms each holding a blade long as he was tall. There were creatures with wings, hoofs, tails, claws and many other over wordily features.

"What the hell is this?", he asked no one in particular. They came to fight an army of technologically advanced aliens, with lasers, flying tanks, mechanized exoskeletons and all the other impossible technological gadgets, but no. What they came upon was an army of sword, axe and claw wielding demons, for the lack of the better word he could only call them demons.

"This is impossible", he told himself feeling stupefied, as he watched, 'a construct' he thought, that was made of rock, that was engulfed in green flames.

"S3 is in position", Milos's report broke his amazement.

"Stay in position S3, don't open fire till ordered."

"C7 (Charlie seven) this is T7 we are in position."

"Wait for my mark T7."

"S5 I want your bazooka to instantly kill that rock when we get the mark, S3 your machine gunners to aim for big ones, all the rest load your grenade launchers and fire them first in any large groups you see."

Dusan heard a collection of "yes sirs" and proceeded to load his own grenade launcher, his hands were shaking, no matter how much he tried to stop them. Again he looked through the window, this time to do a head count and see if he could recognize some leaders. After a quick assessment he counted around two hundred and their leader was clearly a three meters tall vampire?, which was giving orders in some impossible language.

"C7 this is T7 I have recognized their leader."

"Description."

"A vampire with wings and horns."

"Umm… we see him, wait for my mark T7."

"Understood, T7 out."

They waited for several seconds until vampire's head exploded, followed by the loudest sound he ever heard. 'For god's sake did someone fire a canon at him', he wondered until he remembered that they had a sniper with a 50 caliber gun.

One of the monsters roared like a demon from a nightmare and the army of aliens charged to the small bridge where Marko was waiting for them. As they approached the river, they exposed themselves on a clearing and emptied out the space around the buildings he and his men occupied, Dusan heard one word.

"Mark."

"Go loud!" he almost screamed over the radio.

Simultaneously two bazookas, two machine guns, and twenty six grenade launchers broke the windows and sent their deadly payload, taking out a good chunk of the Enemy. Launching his own grenade Jovanovic began aiming, picking his targets. First to die was a woman with hoofs and wings, her weapon of choice was a whip?, then he took out one of the gremlins, 'was it holding fire in its hands?'. That was confirmed when he took out a second one, which managed to fire at his direction. Luckily it went over his head and hit the wall behind him.

"Target the little red gremlins, machineguns concentrate your fire on those that are carrying melee weapons", Jovanovic yelled over the speaker. Result was instantaneous as the Enemy was pushed back and forced to seek cover, something they were painfully bad at as they were dropping them like flies. After several minutes of exchanging fire the street was empty of the demonic aliens.

"Fill the street with smoke, S3 wait for my mark then enter the building on the other side."

Two smoke bombs were thrown in and Dusan ordered the rest to focus their fire on the ones that were engaging Marko's team. If the aliens realized that they were in a crossfire they didn't show it as those with melee weapons still charged like madman, while those that were using magic?, stood in plain sight. By this time the smoke filled the street nicely and was as thick as it could get.

"Grenade launchers", Jovanovic ordered, and heard affirmative as a reply.

"Mark", S3 bolted out of their building and run across the street, while he and the rest sent their grenades across the battlefield sending the Enemy back and making one more hole in their ranks. It wasn't long before S3 cleared the building across the street and started firing upon anything that moved. After several minutes of gunfire it finally began to lessen its intensity and finally stopped.

"T7 don't fire we are coming across."

"Roger that C7", he replied and then ordered, "head count." Finally he could relax, he almost slummed to the floor when adrenaline left his system.

'I am still alive', he told himself.

"S3 here, no casualties"

"S5 here, no casualties although Pjevalica got hit by a fireball in the face, but he will live."

'Fireball? Did they just use a reference from a game or something. It doesn't matter in the end, it's good to have a name for enemy abilities', Dusan mused as he glanced over his squad, no casualties.

After some time they were joined with Marko and his men, "Any casualties", he asked.

"One severe burn to the face, he won't be able to continue, sir."

"That's good, we have three dead and two incapacitated on my side. I believe that odds are in our favor today, wouldn't you say so Jovanovic?"

"Yes sir", he answered, "but…", he didn't know if he should ask.

His captain caught his uncertainly, "Permission to steak granted."

"Sir… what are we fighting sir?"

Marko half smiled, "didn't you hear, we are under alien invasion."

"But…"

"We are fighting them because they are the Enemy, leave the understanding of what they are to someone else, am I understood solder?"

"Yes sir", Dusan replied.

"Good", captain said when he concentrated on his earpiece.

"Understood", he replied after some time.

"Secure the village, in two hours 3rd armored battalion will be arriving, we are to join them in their push towards Pristina. Get moving men!"

* * *

I assume that most of you didn't know how to properly pronounce, some but most luckily all of the names, surnames or town names. And finding how to pronounce these words accurately on internet is a major pain in the ass, and I am lazy to say the least. For that reason I leave it to you how to pronounce them. But I still feel obliged to at least enlighten you how to say the main characters name, so here it is **Du-shan Yo-va-no-vić.** Where **Ć** is read like this **[t͡ɕ]. **I hope that helped.


	3. Pristina

_"Please, please I already gave you everything I had, so please leave me alone, I have no-", the woman's plea was silenced as a large man wearing a strange military uniform, it wasn't like his dad used to wear, smashed his pistol over the woman's head, dropping her to the ground._

_"You think we want your money or food, we already took all of that, we want you to leave, gone, can't you get that into your thick skull. You batter do it while we are playing nice."_

_"Wh-where am I to leave, this is my home", woman cried from the floor, but all her efforts were crushed with a boot to the ribs, making her scream out in pain._

_"Stupid whore, do you think we care", man with the gun said, lifting his leg for another blow. _

_"Don't hurt my mother", Dusan screamed with all the might of his childish voice, bolting out of his hiding spot. When his father left he told him that he was the man of the house now, so he had to protect his mother. And he couldn't do that while hiding, he was his father's good little solder after all, so he had to do as he was told._

_His dreams of being a hero were smashed when another man hit him over the face, forcing him to the floor. _

_"NO!", his mother screamed, her cream filled with more pain from the one she let out just seconds ago. _

_Then a boot connected to his stomach, the force behind it lifted him of the ground and smashed him into a far wall._

_"Please, he is just a boy, please have some mercy", his mother pleaded while his attacker grabbed him by his neck and lifted him up. _

_Dusan trashed around, clawed, punched and kicked anything that was within reach. But it was useless, older man's arm was as hard as a rock, while his steel grip was getting stronger every moment, slowly closing his windpipe._

_"I will do anything you want, so please let him go", he heard his mother while his vision was getting blurry, his lungs felt like they were on fire._

_"Let him go", the man with the gun said, and just like that he was able to breathe again, and in free fall. Dusan smashed hard against the floor, but he didn't care about that, ability to breathe was far more important._

_His mother's face came into view. "Sorry", he tried to say but the word came out wrong, he was so sorry for failing at what he was told to do. But his mother simply hushed him, saying that everything was going to be ok._

_"You told us you would do anything, right?"_  
_"Yes, we will leave first thing in the morning", his mother replied as she wiped some tears of his face. He didn't realize that he was crying and he could feel a wet metallic taste in his mouth._

_"We aren't interested in that anymore", the man with the gun paused, "I and my men haven't been with a woman for quite some time."_

_His mother's face fell and lost its color, "you can't …"_

_"Refuse and we kill the boy then we rape you. Although I would like to avoid that, as I like my women willing, though they don't need to like it", the man grinned as he said that. His eyes showing that he would enjoy any decision his mother made._

_She was silent for a long time. Finally after what seemed like an eternity she nodded, fresh tears rolling down her face, her whole body was shaking. _

_"Excellent, now where is the bedroom?"_

_"First to the left", his mother replied, "can I talk to him first so he won't give you trouble?"_

_"You have two minutes. Defrim watch over them", he said to the man that had brutally beaten him and left._

_"Listen Dusan, sit here and don't move, if you need anything ask these men first", she gestured to the men that were just entering the room. There were five new guys. His mother continued, "if they refuse don't ask again, ok?" _

_He tried to rebel but she hushed him down, "you are your father's good little solder, but you are also your mom's good little boy, aren't you?" _

_He nodded._

_"That's my boy", she said and kissed him on the forehead. Then she stood up and left after the man with the gun._

_Dusan sat on his spot as he was told. He didn't ask for anything as he didn't trust big scary men around him. After some time he noticed that one of his teeth was loose, he wasn't surprised, he lost his first tooth over a year ago. So he played with it with his tongue, and when it became really loose pulled it out with his hand. Dusan wasn't terribly concerned about it, teeth always grow back after all._

_His musings were stopped when the sounds came. They were coming from his father's and mother's bedroom. He didn't know what the sounds meant, yet anyway, so he became terribly afraid. After some time the sounds stopped and the man with the gun returned, only to be replaced with another, and the sounds started anew. This continued for a long time, even after he fell asleep._

_When his mother woke him it was already dawn. There was a large bruise over the left side of her face and she was wearing another dress, in her hands his cloths._

_"Wear this."_

_"Mother what is it?"_

_"We are leaving."_

* * *

_..._

* * *

'Why the fuck am I remembering that now?' Dusan asked himself as he ducked behind a rock that served as his cover, in that instant he was bombarded with the multitude of fireballs. The stone he was hiding behind was barely sticking twenty centimeters out of the ground, but at the given moment he wouldn't trade it for all the gold in the world.

Looking around he saw his squad in the similar situation he himself was in, they were all pinned down returning fire when they could. Luckily for them the Enemy has given up on sending their melee oriented monstrosities on open ground, they were easily being cut down like grass. But in the given situation if they sent them they were fucked, being pinned down like this wouldn't allow them to take them down before they came close. Dusan really didn't want to fight those things in close combat.

It has been four hours since they were joined with the armored battalion, strangely the Enemy didn't stage a counter attack to retake Milosevo. They found out why as they made their push towards Pristina, as they had to fight through wave after wave of berserking aliens. And now all that separated them from the city was this small hill, behind it not even two hundred meters laid Pristina.

Dusan rolled out of his cover just enough to fire a few shots and then rolled back before enemy retaliation hit him. This has been repeating for several minutes now, demons, no one called them demons out loud yet, but they all somehow knew that what they were facing were demons, held the high ground, while they were taking cover behind anything they could.

'Why the hell did it have to be detracked', he cursed as he watched five engineers trying to put a tank's track back together. Luckily for them the tank driver used its other track to turn around, thus shielding them from harm. It turned out that the canons that the Enemy had were unable to pierce M-84's composite armor, but were adequate enough to detrack it.

Marko was adamant in having both tanks operational when they made a final push to take the hill. And after all the death these machines have seeded among the Enemy Dusan had to agree.

'Come on, hurry up', Jovanovic though as he rolled out and fired upon the enemy lines again. It didn't matter if he didn't hit anything, as long as the monsters had to take cover and thus slowing their barrage upon them Dusan was satisfied.

Again he was bombarded by fireballs and all kinds of different energy attacks making him wonder how did his rock survive until now. Taking a quick rest before he started shooting again Dusan looked westward towards burning town of Obilic. Rest of their battalion wasn't able to take the town, part of the reason that they weren't attacked at Milosevo is that the Enemy sent its solders there to stop a much larger threat, and they took heavy losses, just over a hundred men. Because of that high command decided to carpet bomb the town with artillery and air force.

"If you can't control it, destroy it", Dusan silently told the ages old logic that was implemented since the dawn of war.

His musing was interrupted by a painful scream. Turning his head towards the tank he saw one of the engineers engulfed in green flames. He trashed around trying to extinguish them, but it was useless. No one tried to help him ether as he was in the open, too far from any shelter, while his fellow engineers simply divided his share of work among themselves. Then Marko jumped out of his cover and fired, ending the man's misery.

"How long will it take", came Marko's voice over his earpiece.

"We are almost done", replied one of the engineers.

It was in this moment that Dusan decided to fire upon the enemy once more. He rolled on his stomach, took aim, and was greeted with a horrifying sight. Among the alien lines were huge three meters tall monsters, each holding an axe or a sword, they had wings.

'Please don't', the demons lifted their wings and brought them down, taking off into the air.

"Heads up!", he screamed over the radio.

"Protect the engineers", Marko roared.

"On me men", Jovanovic ordered as he jumped out of his cover and took off towards the detracked tank. He was glad to see his squad follow. There were eight meters to the safety the tank provided. Six meters. Five meters. Just as he was about to take the last few meters one of the aliens landed before him, back turned.

Dusan had barely time to lift his rifle and fire into its back before momentum took him and crashed him into the monster, taking them both down. As he tried to lift himself up he was stopped by the sight of one of the red skinned monstrosities standing above him.

Dusan was frozen as he watched it raze its axe, ready to cut him in half. Everything was moving slowly, the demon's face showed a terrible glee as it was about to end him, eyes radiated pure madness and chaos. Just as he was apologizing to Tamara for failing on his promise of returning, one of his squad mates rammed himself into the monster, and finishing it with a knife through the face.

Jovanovic stood up, empowered by the adrenaline, grabbed his rescuer by the collar of his vest and dragged him behind the tank. Looking at who he was he recognized Dejan, youngest in entire company, he turned nineteen this year.

'Bless you kid', but he didn't have time to voice it out, as they were quickly being surrounded by the Enemy soldiers. Demons rushed them, but they weren't close enough so were gunned down. When the last one fell, Dusan ordered his men to give supportive fire to any group of soldiers who still battled the aliens.

He did a quick head count. Four engineers, they didn't even lift their heads to look what was going on around them, and nine riflemen. Nine? There should be ten. He looked through their faces. Nenad.

"Where is Nenad?" Jovanovic asked, not caring who answered. They looked among themselves, and grim realization hit them, one of their friends was missing. He looked around, but to no avail. When he spotted him Dusan felt his gut twist. Nenad laid in the grass, his arm extended towards them as if asking for help, but his eyes were dead, a sword impaled him through the chest.

He was his charge, it was Dusan's job as his commanding officer to do everything he could so his men could return home. And he failed. No he killed him with his orders. Nenad was the first man under his command that he lost.

'But someone had to protect the engineers', more logical side of his psyche told him, 'if they died there would be no one else to repair the tank and a lot more people would die'.

'But he died because I ordered him to leave his cover'.

'One life or a hundred, which is heavier?', he asked himself.

'_A good commander helps his men survive the battlefield, but for those that didn't he must make sure that their sacrifices were not in vain',_ he remembered one of his father's lessons.

'Father always knew what to do', Jovanovic thought as he calmed down his emotions.

"We are done", said one of the engineers braking his musings.

"Airstrike in two minutes, get ready to charge them", captain Marko ordered over the radio and the collection of yes sir replied, Dusan giving his own as well.

Firing on the Enemy line was easy from behind the tank. Enemy canons could only scratch their paint and even they fell silent, courtesy of the tank's massive 125 mm guns, every time they fired a new hole among the Enemy was made.

"Incoming", Marko called out and soon the roar of jet engines was heard. Two G-4 air to ground aircraft were seen as they approached from the left. As they reached the Enemy lines they started unleashing their deadly payloads in the form of missals, bombs and guns. Their deafening shrieks were music to his ears as they destroyed everything on the alien line, from far left to far right.

"Go, go, go", captain shouted over the radio and they all charged just as the tank started moving, taking cover behind it.

They reached hill's top quite easily and anything that wasn't dead was soon dealt with, before them laid Pristina and the ship that brought these monstrosities. It was a massive, half a kilometer, long ship that defied gravity as it floated above the city, it had long blade like contractions all over it, for what purpose Dusan couldn't tell. There was only one and Jovanovic had to wonder how did they place all their soldiers inside it, his platoon alone has killed hundreds of the monsters to get here. By now the Enemy must have suffered thousands if not tens of thousands of casualties.

'Where did they all came from', he asked himself.

In that moment a Mig flew over their heads, going full speed towards the Enemy ship. He released three missals but they stroke some kind of energy shield, leaving the ship unharmed. It didn't return fire as it focused its guns to the south, shooting massive green balls of fire to the ground. It was there that the Americans were trying to make a push through the Enemy lines.

Dusan thought that the Enemy would have razed the city by now but it seems he was wrong, sure there was a lot of smoke and more than one building were destroyed but that was only to the south where the army tried to enter the city from Orlovic. Houses in front of them were pretty much intact, although there were hastily made barricades and aliens roaming around.

"Wait for the artillery strike and then we will make our push", captain Marko said over the radio.

He told his men to lay low and they waited. Not even a minute passed when first shells hit, sending massive shockwaves that he felt even two hundred meters away. The barrage lasted for about a minute.

Just as the last grenade exploded, Marko ordered to move into the city. Dusan was with his squad jogging behind the tank, taking it as cover although there was almost no need. The artillery has completely annihilated first few rows of houses, but the Enemy remained, at least what was left of them. Dusan and the rest of the company simply overrun their positions to enter Pristina.

* * *

...

* * *

Dusan slammed his back at a car, breathing heavily. They have been fighting for two hours now, slowly pushing the Enemy street by street, building by building.

"Shit!", he uttered as he turned around, firing couple of shots and taking one of the bitches down.

It was funny how fast were the solders to give their new enemy names, although they were kind of natural. You couldn't misinterpret them even if you heard them for the first time. So bitch was a name given to the winged females that used whips, gremlins were those small red creatures that threw fire everywhere, their small size making them hard targets to take down. Also there were names like vampires, flyers, shivas, and finally rock duds, or simply rocks. Those usually required bazookas, grenades or something that was at least 50 caliber. Of course there were some creatures that no one thought to name, for now.

He peeked over the car to take a few shots but he quickly took cover as a ball of pure shadow hit its hood. Monsters had them pinned down, again, and it didn't help that they were quickly learning how to use cover. But that didn't matter, just a few more blocks and the Enemy would be pushed out of the city and they will have them on the open again.

"C7 this is T7 we need backup."

"We are stretched thin T7, deal with the situation with what you have", Marko answered.

'Terrific', Jovanovic thought. All he had was his and Lazar's squads, eighteen men in total, Lazar was short two guys.

They needed better cover and fast. But all the buildings around them were badly positioned; it wouldn't allow them to unleash their full arsenal on their foes and could be entered only from one side, making ease to defend but also death traps if they got surrounded. Only building that could be used was behind enemy lines.

"Throw some grenades on their positions", he ordered over the radio.

Moments later two grenades hit home and exploded killing or stunning Enemy soldiers. Dusan and his squads took the opportunity, created by demons lack of fire, to shower them with bullets. They moved forward, closing the gap between lines, but took cover when monsters recovered and started releasing their magical attacks. Jovanovic was still trying to cope with that.

He locked his eyes with Lazar's. That building, Dusan gestured him with his hands, Lazar nodded, he understood. As they were preparing themselves for another push they got showered with fireballs from their left.

"Take some cover men, we are being flanked", he screamed trying to warn them of the new danger. It was too late for one of Lazar's men as he burst into flames.

"T7 I have sent you some backup", Marko's voice came over the radio and Dusan was both praising and cursing him for late reinforcements.

"Lazar use those bazookas for god's sake!"

"We have only one shot left", Lazar replied.

"There won't be any of us left to use it if you don't hit those fuckers", he told him angrily, as he fired on gremlins flanking them from one of the buildings. Soon enough a rocket flu into a window, shaking the whole structure and making the Enemy to stop their fire, if only temporally.

"S5 get into the building behind me, report clear, we will cover you." To hell with them being surrounded, if they didn't leave the street they might as well commit suicide. And reinforcements were coming.

Dusan sent his last grenade into the building, silencing the gremlins for few seconds before they lunched their magic again. He ducked as fireballs hit the car he was hiding behind. But the man beside him wasn't so lucky, it was Dejan. Jovanovic watched in horror as the kid that saved his live just a few hours ago burst out in flames, letting out painful screams as he tried to extinguish the fire.

He couldn't do anything to help him, Dejan already rolled out of their hiding spot. Even if he got to him somehow and managed to quench the fire, Dejan would die anyway. So Dusan did the only thing he could, he ended his pain.

"Clear", Lazar said, as he and his squad opened fire on the Enemy.

"Cover us. Get inside squad".

After they have taken their positions by the windows the firefight lasted for several minutes. Dusan wondered if they were standing in the way of the entire demon army as more and more were coming. Flyers, the red skinned winged creatures holding swords, and some kind of demonic dogs tried to storm their building, only to be repealed. They could hold, but they were running short on ammo, Jovanovic himself had only one magazine left to spare.

Out of nowhere a huge explosion made itself known, deafening them all, followed by a bigger one. It shook the whole structure. Looking over the street, Dusan saw as the whole building, which was occupied with little gremlins, caved in on itself. Shifting his gaze down the street he saw a tank and two ten men squads on both its sides.

'Marko sent me a bloody tank', Jovanovic thought barely suppressing a chuckle, 'I am going to kiss him next time a see him'.

"T7, this is Z17( zulu-one-seven), where do you need us", tank commander asked. The street was crawling with demons.

"Press the pedal and run them over, stop at thecrossroad, squads follow behind the tank and indentify yourselves."

"S3 and S4 sir", came Milos' voice.

'That was MIlos, and Sofija should be commanding the other squad. Good, I got a machinegun and rifle squad', Dusan thought as a plan quickly formed in his head.

"S3 place your machineguns in the tall building at the crossroad, S4 position yourselves inside the opposing building, let's make a kill zone."

Everything worked perfectly, the tank simply run over the monsters and two squads behind it killed anything that escaped its tracks. Dusan and two squads with him rushed out when the tank reached them, joining the fray and pushing back the Enemy.

At the crossroad, they were finally able to get some ammo. They rushed and cleared the buildings they needed. S5 with a fire team from S3 was positioned in a third building, making a three way kill zone. The tank and his squad were on the street, acting as bait.

Dusan was right when he thought that they were staling a whole army. Down the street they were facing, about a hundred meters from them, a dozen rocks, two dozens of six armed shivas, and lots of bitches, gremlins, and flyers marched. Half a kilometer behind them was the edge of the city.

"Squad wait for them to get closer, S3, 4, and 5 go loud on my mark. Z17 let them taste some high explosive (HE) shells", Jovanovic ordered.

When the tank fired the Enemy forces stopped in their tracks. One of the rocks got hit, the HE shell exploded, taking two more out, their solid bodies now working against the Enemy as the pieces of rock flied everywhere as shrapnel, cutting down two shivas and taking out a dozen more smaller monsters around them.

Thirty seconds later the tank fired again, making yet another hole in Enemy ranks. Dusan watched in wonder as the demons got massacred. They were trying to take cover, but shivas were too large to do it, flyers and bitches took to the sky only to be cut down by shrapnel and rocks just stood there taking heavy losses. Jovanovic was failing to contain his smile, the tank fired again, god he loved that auto loader.

He wondered if the tank would finish them all, but that was not to be. One of those vampiric creatures was in the back of the Enemy troops, screaming orders at his subordinates. Soon they gathered their wits and charged Dusan's position.

Dusan took aim, taking out enemy commanders was always preferable, and he was only about hundred and fifty meters away. It wasn't an easy shot, but Dusan knew how to shoot, he leveled his sight with the vampire, it was ease to figure out that they were always in charge so he always ordered his men to kill them, the rest of the Enemy army would fall into disarray, leaderless. He squeezed the trigger, sending three bullets on their way. They hit the vampire and he fell over.

And just like that the rest of the army charged into his trap like brainless morons. He ordered his squad to enter the building, leaving the tank to fend off for itself, not like they could do anything to it. What reached his trap was barely one third of the Enemy army, and all rocks and shivas were dead. Dusan gave his mark and every man fired, taking out scores of enemies.

It was when they were killing off the last of the monsters that an explosion was heard from above.

Dusan looked up. The Enemy spaceship was hit, its side was smocking. The ship was above them, slightly to the east, making its way north.

'It seems that they finally realized that the real attack was coming from the north not south', Dusan thought. 'And it's too late, not to mention that they finally figured out how to bypass those shields.'

The left side of the ship was engulfed in explosions, fine lines were left in the sky, left by missals and artillery shells. Then the next wave hit, and the next.

'Got to give it to artillery, those guys don't know how to miss', he thought as an evil smile found its way to his face. 'Not that they could miss a half a kilometer long vessel.'

One more wave hit and the vessel started going down, picking speed along the way.

'Oh shit', was all he was able to think off. The way it was going it would fall not even a kilometer from their position and that thing must have had one serious tonnage.

'Marko and the rest of our unit are there', were his thoughts when the ship hit the ground. The quake was so large that it rocked even the building he was in. The last he remembers was the ground giving way underneath him.


End file.
